1. Group admins will have more control over their communities.
Facebook is adding several features to help Group admins manage their members and grow their teams.
The new tools will provide admins with a better understanding of member activity and more control over Group membership and posting.
The updates include:
- Group insights — Admins will be able to see real-time metrics about growth, engagement and membership, like the total number of Group posts and most popular times of member engagement.
- Membership request filtering — Membership requests will be sorted into categories like gender or location, so admins can accept or decline requests by categories all at once.
- Removed member clean-up — Admins will be able to remove Group members and their created content in one step.
- Scheduled posts — Group admins and moderators will be able to create and schedule posts.
- Group to group linking — Facebook is testing group-to-group linking, which allows admins to suggest similar groups to their members.
2. Facebook Messenger’s Discover tab went live.
After announcing Discover at F8, Facebook has rolled out v 1.1 for users in the US.
With Discover, users can interact with bots, places, and businesses on Messenger. You can browse by category, recently visited businesses and featured experiences.
What this means for advertisers:
The “recently used” category on Discover will only include businesses that users have messaged, not businesses that users have followed on Facebook Pages or other social media platforms.
This means that businesses will need to promote their Messenger accounts with ads and hope that their accounts are featured in other categories, like topic-related sections and the “Featured” experiences.
3. Messenger Ads are Going Global
Now businesses around the world can extend their reach to people in Messenger. Are 1.2 billion monthly Messenger users enough for you?
Messenger ads will show up with a “sponsored” label in the home tab of Messenger mobile app and they look like a typical News Feed ads with a headline, description copy, image and calls to action. When users tap on an ad, they will be sent to the destination you selected when creating the ads (your website or a Messenger chatbot).
You’ll find Messenger ads as a placement option, and if you’re using automatic placements Messenger is included for all supported campaign objectives. Messenger ads are available in Ads Manager and Power Editor and advertisers will be able to add Messenger to campaigns using the Traffic and Conversion objectives.
4. Find Wi-Fi around the world (and find your business too)
After being released to several countries last year, Find Wi-Fi is now available worldwide.
The tool allows users to find the closest Wi-Fi hot spots based on businesses who have shared their Wi-Fi through their Facebook Page.
To access “Find Wi-Fi,” they only need to open the Facebook app, click on the “More” tab and then “Find Wi-Fi.” They can also search through the map to find available hotspots and learn more details about the businesses providing Wi-Fi.
5. Facebook will offer new metrics for Ad and Page insights.
Facebook has announced the new metrics they will be releasing for businesses over the next few weeks.
These metrics are designed to give companies a better understanding of user interactions with their Facebook Ads and Pages.
Here are the new metrics on ad interactions:
- Landing page views — Shows the number of visitors who reached your website after clicking on an ad.
- Pre-impression activity breakdown — Shows whether visitors have been to your website previously.
With these two metrics, businesses can determine if ads are successfully leading users to their sites and attracting new customers.
Here are the new metrics on Page interactions:
- Follows — Shows the number of follows a business gains or loses, insights into where follows happen, follower demographics and a breakdown of organic and paid follows.
- Previews — Shows the number of people who see your Page’s information without actually clicking on it.
- Recommendations — Shows the number of times your Page is included in a Facebook recommendation
6. Facebook News Feed algorithm was updated to reduce spam.
Facebook has changed their News Feed algorithm to reduce the amount of spam on users’ News Feeds.
Unlike Facebook’s clickbait targeting updates last month, this algorithm update will detect spammers by the total number of posts, not by individual post content.
Facebook is removing the ability to edit a link preview – its image, title, and text – before sharing a link on the platform.
7. New profile picture tools were launched in India.
Facebook’s research showed that some users don’t post a profile picture because they worry it will be misused online.
To help users feel more comfortable posting profile pictures, the company is testing new protective profile picture tools in India.
The first tool is an optional profile picture guard. With this feature, users are able to:
- restrict others from downloading, sharing or sending your profile picture in a Facebook message
- restrict others from taking screenshots of your profile picture (currently only available on Android app)
- restrict non-Facebook friends from tagging others or themselves in your profile picture
The optional guard also adds a blue layer and shield to your profile picture to signal protection to other users.
The second tool is the option to add a design layer to profile pics.
According to tests, people are 75% less likely to copy a profile picture with a design layer.
8. Facebook Safety Check got multiple updates.
Speaking of Facebook’s commitment to communities, the company is rolling out several updates to Safety Check.
Safety Check has always allowed users to let family and friends know they are okay during moments of crisis. Now, Safety Check will also include:
- Fundraisers — Users in the US will now be able to start a fundraiser through Safety Check.
- Community Help — The Community Help feature is now available on desktop and will be available for all types of crises where Safety Check is activated.
- Adding personal notes — To keep friends and family updated, users can now add personal notes that are automatically added to their News Feed story.
- Crisis descriptions — Safety Check now includes info about crises from the global crisis reporting agency NC4.
Facebook first released Safety Check two years ago. For the past two years, Safety Check has been activated more than 600 times and has sent more than a billion safety notifications. It’s already a powerful tool, and the new features will only make connecting with users easier.
9. Facebook Messenger introduced new fun video features.
Recently, Facebook added several features to amp up the fun factor.
These new tools allow you to add animated reactions, filters, masks, and effects to video chats, and take screenshots of your chats.
- Emojis — When you add emojis to animate on your video screen, watch closely! The effects change depending on whether your face is on or off screen.
- Filters — Test the filter before letting others see it.
- Masks — Some of the masks have hidden effects when you move. Try opening your mouth with the rabbit mask…
For Messenger video chat users, the new emojis, masks, and filters should inspire some laughs from friends and family. For business, they will make your interaction way more personal.
